Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!strobl From: strobl@gmdzi.gmd.de (Wolfgang Strobl) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: Apple Computer wins ruling against 'Windows' Message-ID: <4387@gmdzi.gmd.de> Date: 26 Mar 91 17:10:16 GMT References: <46873@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <1991Mar15.101202.1@csc.anu.edu.au> <27E02D24.699@orion.oac.uci.edu> <9964@hub.ucsb.edu> <4323@gmdzi.gmd.de> <1991Mar19.064748.12275@verity.com> Organization: GMD, St. Augustin, F.R. Germany Lines: 107 anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) writes: >In article <4323@gmdzi.gmd.de>, strobl@gmdzi (Wolfgang Strobl) writes: >>doner@henri.ucsb.edu (John Doner) writes: >> >>>As for Windows, the original version, the one current when the Apple >>>lawsuit was filed, was no more than a slavish copy. >> >>As far as I know, the Apple lawsuit wasn't filed against the original >>version. Anyway, I would like to hear some arguments why you think that >>Windows (either version) is a "slavish copy", in your opinion. >Well, I don't know about "slavish copy," but here's the list of >interface items still under contention (from MacWeek). I leave it to >each of you to judge the merits of them: >1. Overlapping windows. What about 1.a Rectangular windows and 1.b square pixels ? Seriously, there are not that much variants here: windows either are overlapping, or they aren't. They are an obvious device if there is more information to present than there is space on the terminal. Pop-up, overlapping windows where in use on character based, memory mapped micro computer screens long before this lawsuit. My Borland SIDEKICK manual (1. edition, march '85) contains a paragraph describing its use of windows: "Sidekick makes full use of windows: each function uses its own separate window, and many windows may be present on the screen at the same time. When a window opens, it will cover some other information, but everything is still present underneath it: [picture of overlapping windows omitted] Each window may be easily moved around on the screen to uncover information that you need to see on the original screen or in other windows. The size of the notepad window may even be varied, both horizontally and vertically - it can take up the whole screen, or just part of a line." My 1981 edition of "Newman/Sproull: Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics" contains a similar paragraph in the chapter on interactive raster graphics. Using overlapping windows was a concept well known before the Macintosh was created, so there is no reason to suspect that somebody had to copy it from there, in order to use it. >2. Windows appearing partly on and off screen. The above mentioned book has a picture of a computer with overlapping windows, some of them clipped by the border of the screen. >3. Windows brought to top when selected. This is a natural consequence of overlapping windows and shared by nearly every other system on the market. Only one window can/should react to the keystrokes of the user, usually by echoing them. It seems natural to bring that window to top. >4. Active top window. How do you define "active"? >5. Gray outline of windows dragged along with cursor. The fact that you see a gray outline is a sideeffect of the technique to xor a dotted rectangle of the same size as the window with the screen. Using the boolean xor operation is a well know technique to modify something without information loss - so that it is possible to restore to the state before the operation, and was not invented with the Macintosh. Its use in contemporary GUIs is mainly caused by lack of memory and/or cpu cycles. >6. Window redrawn in new position. Where else? >7. Newly exposed areas on screen displayed after window is moved. What else? Nobody whould display some random picture there. All this is an attempt to say "overlapping windows" with slightly different wording, to impress somebody who doesn't know better. >8. Movable icons. What is the difference between a moveable window and a moveable icon? Its size? >9. Icons displayed behind open windows. Sorry, I'm lost here. Icons behind open windows (what's an open window?) are hidden, not displayed. >10. Icon titles. This may be a valid point. Perhaps Apple is able to force Microsoft to write icon titles above their icons, and right justified, at least in the program manager, who knows. Icons representing running applications have no counterpart in the Mac OS, so Microsoft should be able to continue the use of the current layout (below, centered), there. ;-) Wolfgang Strobl #include (nonstd disclaimer: I'm no lawyer, and am glad about that.)